Hallucination
by Wish Porter
Summary: Steve sees an unfamiliar superhero in the skies of New York. But he looks like… That can't be right.


Disclaimer: I have no right to any Marvel character, sadly.

This little drabble just popped into my head. There's no real point to it, I just like Chris Evans.

The Human Torch I describe is a mix of the Chris Evans version and the Torch from the cartoons.

* * *

Steve pulled up to his apartment and parked his Harley. He looked the part of a biker with his love-worn leather jacket, his combats and his aviator glasses. He looked at his building.

New, modern, upscale, pricey.

He reminisced on his old apartment and wondered, if he'd lived through the war, would he have lived in a pricey upscale neighborhood like this one? Probably not. Steve had dealt with money issues all his life until he became Captain America. He was used to budgeting and looking over his shoulder while he walked down the street.

Now he had to look over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't recognized by fans and mobbed.

His eyes strayed from his building to the night sky.

That's when he saw it.

A comet flew by. No, not a comet, a flaming man. Steve was instantly running under the man to help him, catch him when he fell from the air, and get him to water.

But the man never fell.

Steve, now curious, continued to follow the man.

It wasn't long before he heard muffled swearing and threats and the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

Steve was ready to jump into action but the flaming man was already there. The thugs were quickly knocked out, burns where the man had touched them.

The man hovered in the air roughly ten feet away and called to him, "Gang fight, its taken care of." The man waved as he flew off.

Steve waved back, in a daze. That man, he looked like… no, that couldn't be right.

* * *

The next time Steve saw the man was when he was visiting Stark Tower for a team meeting. Nothing too formal but Director Fury had been advised by Agent Coulson that some team building exercises were in order after the Loki fiasco. Nothing too crazy, they just got together every now and then when they weren't on missions. Tony, Clint and Natasha had protested the actual exercises.

He was in the glass elevator, on his way up to the lounge where the meetings took place when the flaming man flew by.

He walked into the lounge to see everyone already there. Stark was fiddling with a tablet and conversing with Bruce who also had a tablet. Natasha and Clint were playing some sort of game that involved them moving in accordance with arrows that appeared on the TV screen. Thor was on the couch behind them watching. With Pop tarts.

Steve glanced around. Who to ask.

Thor was immediately eliminated from the list. He was from Asgard, he wouldn't know about Earth's heroes.

Natasha was an option but she was intimidating. Even if she wasn't a dame, Steve had never been good with talking to beautiful women. Other than her beauty, Steve also considered whether she'd tell him anything of use. Black Widow dealt in espionage and assassination. Whatever she knew, she held it close to her heart. She would talk him in circles and learn everything he knew while telling him nothing. She was too much woman for him.

Clint… would not be helpful. The man wouldn't take his questions seriously and he'd purposely mislead him and it just wouldn't work out.

Bruce, while from Harlem, would be no help. He'd hidden himself in remote locations for years and wouldn't know and recent information. While he might know a little about the flaming man, he probably wouldn't be able to answer all of Steve's questions.

Then there was Tony. The billionaire would definitely know all about the flaming man. He made it his business to know things he shouldn't. Additionally, Tony and the flaming man could have seen each other in the sky, flying. Tony would also have no problem answering any and all questions about the flaming man because Tony enjoyed rubbing his intelligence in the faces of others, in his own snarky way. They may not see eye to eye but Tony would help him. Regrettably, Tony was the best option.

Steve resignedly stalked over to the man. "Tony."

Bruce looked up at him; Tony didn't even stop talking let alone look up from the tablet. "-So if we increase the diameter of the turbines that will increase the energy output but decrease efficiency. Yes Spangles?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "I have a few questions and you seem to be the best person to go to for answers."

Tony actually stopped and looked up at him. "The mighty Cap is admitting my usefulness? Well, this _is_ some team bonding, isn't it?" He invited the Captain to sit on the couch next to him. Steve sat. "So what would you like to know?"

Steve didn't hesitate. "The other night, and again today, I saw a flaming man flying through the sky. I thought he needed help so I followed him on the ground but he just took care of a gang fight and flew off. Who was he?"

Tony just grinned. "Johnny Storm, also known as the Human Torch, part of the Fantastic Four."

Steve blinked. So the flaming man was supposed to be on fire. "Oh. So the fire; is it new technology or a serum or is he an alien like Thor?"

The God of Thunder looked over at the mention of his name. "Patriotic One!" he bellowed. "Look upon my countenance! Do I not appear to be from the realm of Asgard? I am Asgardian! Do not mistake me from hailing from the realm of Alien!" He returned to watching his teammates dance battle each other.

"Sorry," Steve muttered.

Tony took a moment to control his laughter. "While there is modern technology that can create synthetic flames, Storm's fire is real. When he was sixteen, Johnny went on a space flight with his sister, Susan Storm and her fiancé, Reed Richards. They were hit with cosmic radiation and they, along with the pilot, Ben Grimm, gained superpowers. Johnny can envelop his body in fiery plasma, which then allows him to fly, providing thrust with his own flame. He can manipulate said plasma into multiple forms and he can essentially control fire within his field of vision. He's been seen to absorb fire into his own body, vaporize bullets, and flames hotter than his own don't seem to harm him. He appears to possess great amounts of control over his plasma as he's held people in that form before and they're alive and not scarred for life. He's trained in hand-to-hand combat; he's a skilled racecar driver, auto mechanic and designer. He's affiliated with his own team, the Fantastic Four and he's allied with Spider-Man. Lots of heroes, not in the Avengers, you don't know them. Answer your questions?"

"Even the ones I didn't have," Steve replied dryly. He got to his feet. "Tony, why do you know all that?"

Tony was back to fiddling with his tablet. "I make it my business to know classified information. So, Bruce, as I was saying-"

Steve shook his head and went to talk to Thor.

* * *

That night, as he was walking through alleys as a cool-down after his evening run, Steve saw the flaming man, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch once more. He couldn't help his reaction; he needed to confirm what he'd seen last night. "Wait!"

Surprisingly, the man did.

He hovered in the air, then after a moment he began to lose altitude until he was only a few feet off the ground and then he stopped. Not once did he turn around. "Yeah?"

Steve blinked and then set his jaw, determined to get answers. "You're Johnny Storm, the Human Torch?"

"What of it?"

Steve scoffed at the playful tone. "Could you turn around, please? I thought I saw something when I saw you last night but…"

The other hero turned around with a confused look on his face, which swiftly turned into slack-jawed shock. "Whoa."

Steve took in the man as he finally touched the ground and his flames faded away. On the man's feet were standard black boots, superhero issue; he'd heard Tony joke with Clint. The rest of him was covered by a reinforced blue bodysuit with a circled four emblem on the chest. Not that different from his own suit really. His hands were bare. His hair was a lighter shade of blonde than his own and styled in a fashion that Steve assumed was popular right now. What really surprised him was Johnny's face.

The two of them could be twins.

Their features, their builds, even the way they moved, all the same. If it weren't for their different hairstyles and powers then Steve would say he'd been cloned. He'd learned about that rather quickly. Apparently the SSA had tried.

So, Steve had to agree with his look-alike. "Well beat me daddy eight to the bar." So he hadn't been hallucinating the night before.

The Human Torch just stared blankly at him for a second before he inevitably saw the shield. "Hold the phone, you're Captain America?" He raked a hand through his hair. "Reed always teased me about how he thought I looked like you but I never thought… Man." A grin. "What do you say we have some fun with this?"

The man out of time thought back to his time with Bucky and all the mischief they'd got into as kids. "I'd say that'd be swell."

Johnny cocked an eyebrow but didn't say anything about his old fashioned slang. "Right. I hear you're pretty close with that Stark guy. How about we start with him? I've always wanted to see the inside of that tower."

He couldn't help his gleeful grin. "Now you're cooking with gas."

* * *

A little forties slang in there for you. And some Asgardian speech patterns on the the side.


End file.
